The U.S. House of Representatives Dodges the Fiscal Cliff

After a very long day in American political history, the House of Representatives, led by a majority of Democrats, passed the American Taxpayer Relief Act, avoiding the fiscal cliff

Tonight, the U.S. House of Representatives finally passed the American Taxpayer Relief Act, 257-167 led by a majority of Democrats and a split Republican leadership.

Only 85 Republicans supported passage of the measure.

Indeed, the Republicans tangled with one another most of the day, with Eric Cantor, the Republican Majority Leader coming out early in the day against the bill. Speaker John Boehner voted for the bill tonight, a deviation from the traditional practice that Speakers do not vote on most bills, except when they choose to demonstrate the importance of a measure.

The Speaker was joined by former Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI), the chairman of the House Budget Committee, who also voted for the bill.

President Barack Obama made a statement after the vote, summing up his priorities by stating that “a central promise of my campaign for President was to change the tax code because it is too skewed toward the wealthy at the expense of working middle-class Americans. And tonight we have done that.”

Vice-President Joe Biden negotiated a compromise measure with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) that was sent to the House of Representatives early this morning.

Americans should prepare themselves for the fiscal battles to come: the debt ceiling crisis has been dubbed the “St. Valentine’s Cliff” and the mandatory sequestration cuts are now called the “St. Patrick’s Day Cliff” in reference to their timing on Congress’ legislative calendar.